Can someone explain these guys to me? I saw them mentioned on the daily show.. I thought it was a joke. I googled them and my result was www.jewsforjesus.org.

Can someone explain to me who they are?

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Maybe you're confused because you're thinking of just the religion of Judaism. These are people who are ethnically Jewish and spiritually Christian and they started an organization based on the commonality of their ethnicity.

their essential "mission" as it were is to evengelize fellow jews. Not that they exclude themselves from evangelizing others, but their primary goal is to address specific objections, midsets, etc that are unique to jews. I only know all this because i've met organizers and reps from JFJ back in my christian days.

They are also into revealing the Jewish roots of Christianity to non-believers and Christians alike. Fascinating stuff, really.

If you're into studying Judaism, Israel, and other interesting tidbits about the world of Jewishness, I highly recommend getting Jewish Literacy, by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. It's great reading, easy to digest, and covers just about every thing you've ever wanted to know about Jews and Judaism but were afraid to ask.

This isn't all that ironic, as most Christians were at some point Jewish. Both religions share many common ideaologies. What would be humorous would be a Jews for Allah group

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My understanding of the Bible is that before Jesus Christ came and went, the Jewish people regarded themselves as God's favourites, but God's message, given through Jesus, was that he was adopting all of us, and is waiting for us to stop walking away from him.

My 'rough and ready' understanding of other peoples' beliefs is that both orthodox Jews and Muslims accept that Jesus existed, but do not accept that he was sent by God/the son of God. Jews for Jesus accept the Christian view that Jesus was the Son of God.

My understanding of the Bible is that before Jesus Christ came and went, the Jewish people regarded themselves as God's favourites, but God's message, given through Jesus, was that he was adopting all of us, and is waiting for us to stop walking away from him.

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HEHE technicly then we are people of god because Jesus was jewish yes, he was one of us

Also most of christians at first were jewish... all his followers etc... so its not big deal...

Also... why not... me being jewish doesn't stop me from believing in whatever i want. It's just my blood... there is diffrents between being jewish (which is a race) and believing in jewish religion (which is religion).

In the first century AD, the section of the Middle East that is roughly analagous to present day Israel and which was owned by the ancestors of the modern Jews was under the occupation of a foreign government, namely the Roman Empire. There was a lot of unrest in the land and significant strand of that was pinned on messianic hopes, ie. that God would send an anointed leader ('messiah' means anointed one) to free the Jewish people in line with what they believed was promised through their scriptures (more or less the collection of books regarded as the 'old testament' by modern Christians).

Not only were there messianic hopes but there were also a lot of messianic pretenders - this is the historical foundation on which Monty Python's Life of Brian was based on.

One of those potential messiahs was Jesus of Nazereth. A Christian is someone believes that he uniquely deserves the title of Christ (from the Greek 'Chrestus', also meaning anointed) because he was the one sent by God, fulfilling many of the hoped for promises albeit in what seemed an 'upside-down' fashion ("the servant king", "the sinless friend of sinners"). I'm in that camp and, even aside from spiritual experience, I think there is plenty of historical evidence that gives weight to the case for accepting this claim.

However, the majority of the Jewish people including most of the religious leaders of the day did not accept the claim. The division between mainstream Judaism and the early Christian church was further widened as the Christians demonstrated a belief that what Jesus had accomplished through his death and resurrection was good news for all people, not just the 'chosen' Jewish race.

Subsequently, in AD70 (about 40 years after the crucifixion / resurrection of Christ), a Jewish revolt led to to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and the exile of the Jews from their homeland. While the Jewish religion has, remarkably, survived this body blow and many subsequent persecutions, there are people of Jewish background who have come to accept the claims of Jesus and now recognise him as the Christ.

These 'messianic Jews' keep many of their distinctive Jewish customs while wholeheartedly endorsing the message that the gospel is for all people. Jews for Jesus is an organisation primarily made up of messianic Jews who want people who share their heritage to consider the claims of Jesus afresh.

You may or may not agree with their faith but it's definitely a kosher organisation...